It was a cold day on Bakunyuu. Few days were as cold as this one on the usually warm and semi-humid planet.

The clouds were black. No hopeful rays of light could pour down on the people of Bakunyuu today. Not as they held their loved ones in a tight embrace. Not as they trembled in fear as the clomps of soldiers' feet echoed through their town. Not as TIEs screeched overhead.

These people had lived under the thumb of the Empire for almost sixteen years and had their freedom for less than a month.

When the Empire was gone and they were free, they were reminded of this freedom every time they looked northward. The grand obsidian Phoenix whose wings seemed to reach up and out in a protective embrace. The mighty feat their Goddess Inferna had accomplished - saving them all. For that month, Inferna had set them free.

Where was she as the TIEs destroyed the magnificent bird of fire? Where was their Goddess as the screech of the TIE fighters flew over their town? Where was this almighty deity as two serpents dressed in black began to slither amongst their streets, brandishing the symbols the people once managed to scrub off their walls?

The smaller, female one with yellow eyes and two black marks cut downwards across her face had a small droid placed upon her shoulder. One red eye scanning over the area. The larger, male one with pale eyes and grey skin stood tall and silent.

"It seems that this frivolous check-in on this planet may reap some fruits for us today, Fifth Brother," the woman with yellow eyes had a slithering smile on her twisted lips as she studied the fiery mural in front of her. "The small base planted on this planet said this planet should have blown when that volcano erupted. But, here we are, and a phoenix erupting from the hideous planet's volcano."

"A phoenix," the man with pale eyes spoke. "Do you think this has to do with the Rebels?"

"It may…" Seventh Sister pondered, placing a hand on her chin. "The people claim that a girl-Goddess named Inferna saved them from the volcano and created that monstrosity."

"What if this has to do with that Syla Dume? The girl Lord Vader warned us about a month ago," Fifth Brother inquired.

"If that is so, we'd have to stand down and call Lord Vader to the scene," Seventh Sister reminded. "We wouldn't want to call him if this is just a dusty planet's folklore, now would we?"

The woman turned to the volcano, now covered in the smoke and debris from the fallen phoenix around it.

"Besides, if this Inferna does indeed exist, she will come once she realizes her mighty phoenix has fallen," the Seventh Sister grinned. "And the rebels will follow."

"Seventh Sister, Fifth Brother." the Inquisitors turned to face the ISB agent with a bo-rifle strung across his back who approached them

"Yes, Agent Kallus?" Seventh Sister inquired. "What is it?"

"We are getting reports that this 'Goddess Inferna' myth may have some connection to the rebel cell I have been dealing with for a long while now," he brought up a holographic photo from the device in his hand. In the photo, a kid wearing a blue cloak and no shoes sat atop of a lasat's shoulders, a togruta next to them in a grey cloak, and other rebels they had frequently encountered walked beside them. "Here they are at a festival the people had after the volcanic occurrence. People believe the girl with no shoes may be responsible for the phoenix we saw protruding from the volcano."

Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother shared a twisted grin as they saw the child with no shoe's face poke out from the hood of her cloak. Glowing red hair and fiery amber eyes. Just like the mural in front of them.

"So, this rebel cell has a new member I see," Seventh Sister chuckled. "Let's see how this little 'Goddess' handles the power of the Empire."


Athena's eyes opened, the teal in her eyes swirling with a glowing fiery orange now. Her hair was mostly brown as it floated freely around her, but the ends were tinted with a dark red and black.

She sat on a rock covered in moss as the rain around her beat against the planet in a rhythm she couldn't quite help but love. A small arc of water was suspended just above her head, shielding her from the rain.

Her arm reached out and grabbed one of the stones in front of her. Dark, hard pieces of stone with a small tint of red on their edges. She turned the largest stone in her hand, the thin sheet of rock formed to perfectly fit her chest.

She slammed the sheet of rock against the one below her and smiled.

Her chest plate was strong in that aspect at least. Made from Mother Bakunyuu's lava, Athena spent weeks meticulously cooling and shaping the pieces of rock into her own armor.

Two guards for her forearms and a plate for her chest.

Sabine sat on a crate not too far from the Earthling, bordley watching and waiting through the eyes of her helmet. Rain droplets bounced off her Mandalorian armor as she waited in the rain for Athena. Athena still sat on the large rock they had rolled in from the woods for the Jedi to meditate on when they wanted to.

"Are you ready to test your armor yet?" the Mandalorian asked. "You said that they should be ready today."

Athena smiled and nodded at Sabine.

Sabine chuckled, "Man, it's kinda cool you were even able to make this stuff out of lava."

"Took me weeks just to get the consistency right so they wouldn't shatter when I hit them," Athena said. "Now they're pretty solid. I just hope they can at least take one or two hits from a blaster - seeing I don't have a lightsaber to block any blaster bolts with."

"Alright," Sabine stood. Athena took her chest plate and two arm guards, the shield of water suspended above her head following her, and went to place the pieces of armor on their shooting crate. She propped them up and went to stand next to the Mandalorian.

Sabine took out her pistols and fired at the chest plate first.

It smoked but did not crack or crumble.

She shot at the arm guards - neither having a crack in them.

"Nice job, kid," Sabine looked down at the girl. "Wanna try two shots?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I doubt I'd only get shot at once in each area."

Sabine took her blasters and fired at the hardened pieces of lava again. There was plenty of smoke, but no cracks.

"Hey, those work pretty well," Sabine chuckled, putting her blasters back into her holsters. "I guess all that meditating did you good."

"What can I say? Ahsoka taught well with meditation," Athena chuckled with her. She dashed and snatched her newly molded armor and placed it on her body. She had glued straps to each of them, making it easy for her to attach or detach the armor from her body whenever.

"You should let me paint those," Sabine suggested, looking at the girl dressed in all black attach the black pieces of armor onto her. "You got no color."

Athena rolled her eyes. "Alright, what color do you suggest? I want to blend in, not stick out, ya know?"

"I can paint that chest piece some shades of blue like my hair," Sabine suggested. "Or would you like something more fiery, Goddess Inferna?"

"Will you guys stop calling me that? It's almost been a month now." Athena laughed. "And yeah, I like the colors in your hair, so you can paint it like that. Just don't make it too bright, okay?" the girl detached the chest plate from herself and handed it to Sabine.

"Want me to do a little something with the arm plates?" Sabine asked as she took the armor into her hand.

"Yeah, why not?" Athena shrugged, taking the arm plates off too and handing them to the Mandalorian. "If I'm gonna make some armor, who better to leave it to than the Mandalorian?"

"Thanks," Sabine took the pieces in hand. "Ya know something, kid? I can't wait until we get you back into the action of it all. You'd do great against these crumby Stormtroopers and Inquisitors with these powers of yours."

"Hell yeah I would," Athena joked. "I got Earth, wind, fire, air, and the Force on my side. I'll kick these bucket head's butts."

Sabine held the plates of armor up as she walked towards the Ghost. "I'm gonna go ahead and work on these now, okay?"

"Let me know when you're done," Athena called as Sabine walked to the Ghost. "I'm gonna be out here working on meditation a little more."

"Alright!"

Athena stood there for a moment and closed her eyes, bringing her feet together as she clasped her hands. She made her hair slowly fall back down and rest onto her back and her hair went full brown now. Her umbrella made of water still suspended just above her head.

When she opened her eyes, Zeb, Chopper, and Rae appeared at the Ghost's ramp.

"Hey, 'thena, wanna go into town with us?" Rae called. "We're picking up some supplies."

"And we need your little water umbrella," Zeb said, holding the blue cloak Ezra always loaned the girl. "So, come on. Hera's got a list for us."

"Alright," Athena's bare feet squished in the grass as she walked over to the three. She raised her arms up and made the arc of water above her head bigger. Zeb, Chopper, and Rae joined her under the little shield and they began walking northeastward. Athena's face was mostly covered now by the dark blue cloak when she put it on.

"No shoes again?" Rae asked as they walked into the woods, a dark purple cloak on her shoulders. "Aren't you worried about the whole Inferna thing?"

"Nah, I got brown hair right now. Not very fiery," Athena shrugged, still holding her arm up to hold the shield up above their heads. "Besides, that was almost a month ago now."

"Hey, how long until we go back to the fleet?" Rae questioned, looking to Zeb.

"Five rotations," Zeb answered. "Then we're back to kickin' Imperial butt."

"Woo!" Rae and Athena cheered, more than ready to go and smash some Stormtrooper helmets. They had been cooped up on this little planet doing almost nothing else but Jedi training for weeks now. They hadn't seen a single Imperial that entire time, so they were ready to go and kick some butt after the next five rotations.

Athena didn't realize how unprepared she was to take on an Imperial until later that day. She had been so caught up in the Ones training her to fight Abeloth and Kanan and Ahsoka's Jedi training, she didn't really stop to think how she hadn't really faced the Empire in any major capacity whatsoever.

A little over an hour and a half later, they were about to approach the town.

Athena rolled her eyes as Chopper complained about the couple of tiny drops falling from the shield above their heads.

"Shut it, Chop, she's doing her best!" Rae warned.

"Yeah, not like your rusted gears are helping us anyway on this trip," Zeb shoved the astromech.

"I gotta drop the water umbrella here soon," Athena said as she looked to the others. "I think we're approaching-"

A screech pierced their ears. Zeb and Rae's eyes went wide as they recognized that sound roaring above the trees.

"A TIE fighter! Karabast!" Zeb grabbed Athena and they ducked, forcing the girl to drop the water umbrella.

"What?" Athena questioned as Rae and Zeb's worried eyes looked up into the sky covered by the leaves. "That sound was a TIE?"

"They must've come back to the planet when they realized when it wasn't destroyed," Rae said in a hushed voice.

"Chopper, contact Hera," Zeb looked to the droid.

"Should we go back to the Ghost?" Athena questioned.

"We should probably check to see how many are here," Rae suggested. "Give us an idea of how many are on the planet."

"I don't know…" Zeb shook his head as the water continued to fall from the sky onto them. "Kanan and Ahsoka said they don't want you Padawans to be seen by the Empire just yet."

"Well, we're gonna go back and start fighting them in like five days, right?" Athena pointed out. "I think we can handle ourselves."

Zeb shook his head in uncertainty, "I don't think it's a good idea."

"We can just snoop the place out and see what exactly we're up against if we try to leave the planet," Rae suggested. "Come on!"

"Alright, but this is just an info-collect. Let's try not to get involved," Zeb shook his head. "I don't want you Padawans to get into too much trouble."

Zeb was always one to go head-first into fighting the Imperials. Not now. Not with all these Jedi being hunted down around him. Not with Athena - the girl who would be the biggest prize to claim for the Empire.

"We can split up and search the city twice as fast," Rae said. "Athena is new to this galaxy, so she should go with you to check the east. Me and Chopper will check out the west. Rendezvous here."

Zeb nodded and the group soon split. Athena closely followed the lasat and kept her hands motionless, being sure not to use her powers just yet. Her hair was still brown.

Zeb knew being a large lasat made him stand out, so he made sure to hide amongst the alleys and behind the buildings as they searched the outskirts of the east side of the capital city.

Athena had never seen more than two Stormtroopers at once, so when she saw a whole battalion of them march down the streets of the city, her heart nearly stopped.

Then something cold. Colder than the rain that drenched her cloak.

She froze there, without even making a sound. Zeb didn't even notice.

The wind whispered in her ear again, but not like it had before. This was more confusing. She didn't know whether or not to run.

Zeb made round a corner, leaving the girl standing on the street alone. Her breaths were a little heavier and her muscles were a little stiffer.

Her body didn't know whether to go left or right, to go chase Zeb, or to find the source of the cold.

She took a sharp turn left and sprinted down the streets of the city, past the battalion of troopers, and far past where Zeb could easily find her if necessary.

It got colder and colder as she ran towards the center of the city. She didn't even realize the phoenix was gone. She didn't realize she shouldn't be chasing after shadows.

"Well, look what we have here," a woman with glowing yellow eyes gleamed with an evil grin.

The tall man behind her didn't look like any species Athena had learned about. He had pale eyes, grey skin, and hellish looking teeth.

"The Force is strong with this one," the grey man said. His voice chilled Athena to the bone. "Lord Vader was right. Syla Dume is one with the Force indeed."

"Inquisitors…" Athena took a step back, hands in front of her - not really sure how, or if, she should use her powers. These were the exact people Kanan and Ahsoka didn't want her to be seen by.

"Ah, she looks just like her brother," the woman cooed. "Ya got the same handsome face."

They took metal circles from their body, two red blades to be ignited from them.

"Lord Vader will be pleased to know we captured the child," the man said.

"Indeed," Seventh Sister grinned. "She'll make a fine addition to the Empire."